Whole turkeys fall out of favour as UK shoppers opt for crowns

UK shoppers chose crowns over whole turkeys during Christmas to cut out waste

Record Christmas sales for UK retailers showed that shoppers turned towards turkey crowns rather than whole turkeys during December in an attempt to crack down on endless leftovers, according to research analyst Kantar Worldpanel.

In its grocery market share figures for the 12 weeks ending 30 December 2018, Kantar revealed that whole turkey sales dropped by 7% among the major UK supermarket chains, as consumers preferred smaller joints, such as crowns, to avoid waste.

The Christmas trading period in the UK produced record sales of £29.3bn even though Kantar claimed inflation across the retail sector took its toll on sales across the festivities.

The supermarket sector had grown by just 1.6% for the period – its slowest rate since March 2017, according to Kantar. Other meat products such as bacon, pork and lamb were also hit by inflation and have been described as the fastest rising price markets for supermarkets over the past few years.

“Although the grocers achieved record sales, overall spend was actually tempered by lower inflation of 1.3% – that’s less than half the level of like-for-like inflation of 3.6% which was recorded in Christmas 2017​,” said Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt.

“This slower inflation rate helped shoppers to manage their festive budgets, with 60% of customers looking to make savvier decisions to make their money go further over the holidays​.”

The price of meat items are forecast to soar in preparation for the looming Brexit deal, with the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) issuing a warning​ that a no-deal outcome would significantly hike up prices.

Speaking in August 2018, BMPA said consumers should expect to see beef prices rise by 40% across UK supermarkets, while chicken prices would also jump by 22% if a no-deal Brexit were implemented, it added.